


Distance

by herwhiteknight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, Will tag more characters as they appear, lots and lots of gay yearning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herwhiteknight/pseuds/herwhiteknight
Summary: “Hey. Come back to me,” Blake's voice pulled her out from her thoughts. “We'll be together soon, okay? It'll happen. We'll make it work. Together.”“Together,” Yang agreed after a beat that felt too heavy to be gravity. She needed this woman like the blood in her veins, like the cells of her skin. She was incomplete, they both were. But they'd found each other when so far apart, it was only a matter of time before their atoms drew together like destiny. Fate would be kind to them both. There would be no other acceptable answer.(Because sometimes, the universe is gentle to those in love.)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 58
Kudos: 228





	1. the sound of your soul in mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of short vignettes displaying different moments along the timeline of Blake and Yang's long-distance relationship.

Blake stared at her phone screen, the background unmoving and could've easily been mistaken for a wallpaper or a lockscreen had it not been for the occasional sound of someone humming to themselves just out of view. She shifted in her bed, suddenly nervous as her heart shot through her throat. "So, uh," she started, trying to get settled before Yang came back. "Tell me about your day, I guess? If you want to, that is."

"Of _course_ I want to, Blake," Yang said, her voice carrying through Blake's speakers before she even appeared on-screen, dropping herself heavily into the chair in front of her laptop. "Talking to you is like, the highlight of my day."

"Oh," Blake fought a small smile, still surprised by the sentiment. Surprised, more than anything, by the sincerity with which Yang said those words. Surprised that she genuinely seemed to even care. It was mind-boggling, really. But in the best of ways. “That’s so sweet, Yang,” she said quietly, her heart calming as Yang dropped her chin into her palm.

“Nothing to compare to you though,” she grinned stupidly, reaching out towards the camera for an absent moment before dropping her hand back down. “Wish I could be with you,” she said, brows knitting together, eyes darkening.

Blake felt her own frown tugging at the corner of her lips and sought to remedy the ache for them both. A distraction was needed. “Hey, it’ll be soon. I promise you,” she reassured, lifting her voice. “Why don’t you tell me about your day though? You’d said over text that something crazy happened to you, right?”

Yang sighed, but let the heavy sentiment fall to their feet for something so much lighter. For now, this, hearing each other’s voices and seeing the other’s face… that was blessing enough. “Okay…,” she started slowly, then leaned in a little closer to the screen, noting Blake’s horizontal position, all tucked into bed. “But only if you’re up for it! You look like you’re gonna fall asleep any second there, babe.”

“No, no!” she protested, digging out one of her hands from her blanket cacoon to wave it in an attempted nonchalant gesture. “I’m… totally fine,” she finished, ducking offscreen to hide a pretty obvious yawn. 

“Belladonna,” Yang tapped her finger against her laptop screen. “You can’t use that trick on me anymore, I know what time it is. You should go to bed, I won't keep you up when you have that big job interview tomorrow.”

“But you just got back from classes,” Blake whined, and beneath the surface level pouting, there was genuine disappointment. An unbearable aching pain that ran deep through their bones, incurable aside from a touch from across the world. 

“I know, baby,” Yang sighed, glancing over at her backpack that remained untouched since she’d tossed it down on the floor ten minutes ago before Blake had video called her. “But it’s getting late for you. And I should study.”

“It isn’t fair,” Blake murmured, her voice dropping letters from the sentence as she shifted onto her side to get more comfortable, despite her own protests. “I want you next to me. I want to feel you.”

Yang’s breath caught in her throat, same as it always did whenever Blake expressed sentiments like that. They had only been together for a few months now, but even then she still couldn’t believe it. That someone as wonderful as her… it just blew her mind. How fucking _lucky_ she was. “I want that too, Blake,” Yang said gently. “More than anything. And it’ll happen. Soon,” she finished, repeating Blake’s words from just a moment ago back to her.

“It’s not soon enough,” she said, sounding adorably frustrated.

Yang couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re so cute, Blake,” she told her disgruntled expression. “But, hey. If you go to bed now, that will be one sleep closer until we can meet each other, okay?”

Blake considered the validity of this argument, clearly weighing the pros and cons. Then, “Fine,” she let out a huff. “I’ll go get ready for bed, I guess. Back in a few minutes.”

“You mean I can’t watch?” Yang teased as she was left with an empty view of Blake’s bedroom ceiling.

“In your dreams, Xiao Long!” Blake’s disembodied voice shouted tinnily back through the mic. 

Yang just laughed, finally hauling her backpack over to her desk, nudging her laptop aside slightly to make space for her notes and her textbook. She managed to make a bit of progress on her studying before Blake popped back on screen, dressed in her adorable fish-print pajama bottoms and a loose black tank top. “I’m so glad I bought those for you,” Yang smirked, taking her in as she got herself settled under her blankets. “They’re gonna look great on the floor of our apartment.”

“Oh my god, Yang,” Blake mumbled, but Yang couldn’t help but grin as she _swore_ she heard a note of needy longing in those words.

Yang let the moment rest for a long breath, her chin propped in her palm as she looked at Blake’s adorable little face, her ears twitching in contentment. “You know I would never ask you for something you’re not comfortable with, right?”

Blake glanced at the screen with a confused expression on her face. She fought back a yawn, “Of course, why are you asking?”

“You know, just…,” Yang blushed, ducking her head slightly, “if we ever decide to… just. If you ever wanted to.. _do_ anything like that…”

“ _Do anything_ like… you mean sex?”

Blake was blushing too, but Yang couldn’t even fault her for it, because _she_ at least had managed to say the word. “Yes! Uh, I mean, yeah. That,” she stuttered, before promptly burying her face in her hands. 

“I trust you, Yang,” Blake said after a long moment. “And.. maybe… in the future... we can talk about this more.”

“I’d like that,” Yang hummed, lifting her head back up to stare at Blake who had propped her phone up next to her on the pillow. “But for now, you get some sleep, okay? You need to be well rested for tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to…,” Blake murmured, even as her eyes fluttered shut.

“Call me before you leave, okay?”

“But it’ll be too-”

“I don’t care how early it is for me,” Yang cut her off gently. “I can always go back to sleep, my class isn’t until the evening. I want to wish you good luck.”

“Alright,” Blake mumbled, too exhausted for much more of a reply than that. “G’night Yang.”

“Sleep well, baby.”

* * *

“I miss you,” Blake breathed into the phone. She was still at the office, a last-minute (and overly-extended) work meeting keeping her chained to her desk to finish up some paperwork that her boss had demanded to have done before she left. It ruined _everything._ Her and Yang were supposed to have a long video call to celebrate the fact that she’d finally finished her last exam of the semester, but now?

Well, _now_ Blake was left with an answering machine. “Baby, I’m so sorry,” she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, setting her phone down for a moment as she gathered up the loose paper into a haphazard stack. Pages in hand, she continued, “Richards kept me late just for some _busywork_ and there was an unexpected meeting and-,” she let out a long sigh, trying to ease the tension in her shoulders, to pull the strain out of her voice. Yang didn’t need her stress right now. And if she kept going, she’d end up on a tirade against her boss that would likely get her fired.

“I hope you’re out there celebrating right now,” Blake continued, “because you deserve it. I know how hard you’ve worked, and I hope you’re not waiting for me to call - you should be with your friends right now anyway.

“I just… _god_ , is it selfish of me to say that I just want to hear your voice right now? I know you’ve had a long day, but this... ,” she glanced around the office quickly, “this _shit_ my boss just pulled is driving me crazy! And you always know what to say to make me feel better, and I.. miss you, that’s all. Call me when you get this, okay? I love you.”

Blake hung up, staring at Yang’s contact photo for a long moment before tucking her phone back into her purse and picked up the stack of papers to deposit on the manager’s desk as she left the building.

“Oh, Blake,” a voice called from behind her as she turned to leave. _Bastard Richards,_ she growled inwardly. “I need one more favour actually!”

She turned smartly on her heel, plastering a smile on her face. “Yes sir?” she said, her grip tightening on the handles of her purse. 

“There’s a few more things I’d like you to take a look at with me,” he said, a leer stretching across his face in what he probably thought was a charming grin. “Off the record, perhaps.. over a drink? I know a great bar just a short walk from here that we could-”

“I’m going to stop you right there, Richards,” Blake snapped, barely keeping her anger in check. He _could_ still fire her at any moment, after all. She cleared her throat, “Sir, if it isn’t office business, then on a personal note, I will have to decline your… invitation. And if it _is_ office business, then on a legal note, I will _still_ be declining, as I’ve already been kept longer than the hours mandated by the law. Unless you want a lawsuit on your hands…,” she quirked an eyebrow at him, knowing full well that she was being just slightly overdramatic. A complaint to the head office would’ve been enough to scare him off, but she _so_ wasn’t in the mood tonight.

“C’mon, don’t be like that sweetheart,” he complained, “I was just trying to be nice, ‘cause you just said you had a long day, so I thought I’d cheer you up a little!”

“What a _lovely_ offer,” she said, her words dripping with sarcasm that unfortunately went unnoticed. So she clarified further, “I’ll be sure to tell _my girlfriend_ that you offered. She’ll be very surprised to hear that my boss, the very same person who causes me no end to my headaches, would be able to cheer me up better than she ever could herself. If you’ll excuse me,” Blake said, whirling around and making a beeline for the door before he could even get another word in edgewise. 

  
  


“Oh my _god_ babe, you did _not_ say that to him!” Yang gasped later after reigning in her laughter at the last few lines of Blake’s tale. 

“I did,” Blake winced, dropping her head into her hand with a _smack_ . “I’m probably gonna be fired on Monday, _god_ I don’t know _what_ I was thinking, I was just so stressed and tired and _worried_ that you might hate me for not being there to call and-”

“Whoa, whoa. Hey,” Yang interrupted Blake’s spiral quickly, recognizing the panic in her voice. “Hey, Blake? Look at me, baby,” Yang called gently, nudging her textbooks off to the side and turning on her laptop’s webcam.

Blake sniffled on the other end of the call for a moment before her camera blinked on too, revealing her looking disheveled and worn-out from work. Her blouse was wrinkled and half unbuttoned, a black bra just barely peeking out from underneath. Yang bit her tongue and kept her mind on her words. “I would _never_ hate you. I could never be angry at you for something that’s out of your control, okay?”

“But…,” Blake started quietly, rubbing the heel of her hand under her eye, smudging mascara. And she looked so beautiful, even worn down and tired as fuck. It just made Yang want to kiss her all the more. “I was supposed to call you - I… I had _promised,_ and you were probably waiting for me-”

“Things happen baby,” Yang reassured her, wishing dearly that she could pull her close, run her hands through her hair and cuddle her underneath the warmest blankets. “I’m not upset with you. Ruby had surprised me after I’d finished the exam and took me, Weiss, and Pyrrha out to dinner and a movie. I wasn't worried that you hadn't texted me - if anything, I should've told you I wouldn't be back until later to call. I'm sorry."

Blake's lip twitched up in a small watery grin. "I guess we're even then," Blake murmured, lifting her hand to trace at the image of Yang's jawline on the screen, wondering, not for the first time, how soft her skin would feel under her fingertips.

"Yeah," Yang agreed quietly, letting the moment settle. "I get to see your pretty little gorgeous face. I don't think there's anything better than that."

"I can think of one thing," Blake grinned, and Yang became hyper aware of the remaining buttons still done up on Blake's blouse. But Blake's smile was a heart-meltingly soft distraction, so Yang just hummed a question and let her continue. "Getting to see your beautiful face and just… stare into your eyes for as long as I want."

Yang felt her heart soar and thunder with rocket fuel as she hit the stars. She managed to swallow the lump of pure love and joy in her throat, blinking away tiny pinprick tears as she replied, "Well. I guess we're even, then."

* * *

“I want to feel you,” Yang said, snuggling deeper underneath the covers and somehow still feeling cold. “I want your arms around me.” 

“But you’re taller than me!” Blake couldn’t help but giggle. Her voice was thick with sleep and muffled, presumably because her face was probably currently smushed into her pillow. 

“Don’t care,” she protested, “you can be my jetpack.”

“We can fly all over the world by the power of our love,” she replied, her words fading into a happily exhausted sigh.

“You’re so fucking lucky that you're adorable. Because that was _so_ cheesy,” Yang rolled her eyes with a grin as she heard a door slam. Ruby was finally home, it seemed. “I’ll be right back, okay?”

“No… take me with you, please..”

Well, Yang couldn’t say no to _that_ tone. She grinned, flipped back her covers, and scooped up her phone as she went out to greet her sister. “Alright, up ya come,” she said, feigning some effort noises as she got out of bed.

“So strong...,” Blake mumbled adorably.

“Only for you, babe.”

“Oh, is that Blake?!” Ruby asked excitedly, pulling off her boots and bouncing up to greet her sister with a hug. 

Yang tucked her phone into the pocket of her robe as she pulled Ruby into the hug for a long moment. “Sure is,” she nodded, ruffling her hair. “But she’s sleeping right now, so you gotta-”

A loud distorted burst of sound rustled from Yang’s pocket, punctuated by the end of an unmistakably cute yawn. “M’not! Not sleeping!” Blake argued, sounding only _slightly_ more awake than she had been a few minutes ago. “How’re things, Ruby?”

“Pretty good!” she chirruped as Yang pulled her phone out from her pocket with some degree of resignation. “I was just out playing some board games with a couple of friends, usual Friday stuff-”

“Oh! Yeah, how are Penny and the rest of them?”

“Great! They’re doing just great, yep!” Ruby exclaimed excitedly, before launching into epic retelling of their adventures. “Juane _totally_ flunked out trying to lead the party halfway - Pyrrha had to come in and save his ass and like, it _looked_ like everything was going well after, but Nora’s like, a really mean DM, you know? ‘Cause after Pyrrha rescued Juane, Nora had this whole trap set up and it was like, was she gonna make it? Like, I was out of range to heal and-”

“Wait, Rubes, sorry, I-” Yang cut her off, lifting her phone closer to her ear. “Sorry, I think Blake fell asleep.”

“ _How?!_ I mean, I thought I was being pretty engaging, pretty rude of her if you ask me! I was in the middle of a story!” she folded her arms, but there was a teasing tilt dancing at the corners of her lips.

“Here, wait. I got this,” Yang grinned, feeling her heart thump loudly for a couple extra beats in adoring excitement. Ruby fell silent immediately, the knowing grin growing even wider as she realized what Yang was about to do. 

She dropped her voice ever so slightly, her tone softening to an almost cavity-inducing sound, and she called out gently into the quiet, “Baby?” she paused for a moment, allowing the sound to filter through the space. Again, “Blake baby, you gotta wake up.”

“Mmnh?” Blake burbled, the soft sound coming out almost as a purr. 

“Oh my _god,”_ Ruby practically squealed, “That is _soo cute_!” 

A long, soft sigh sounded from the phone in Yang's hand, and Blake spoke, her voice thick with exhaustion. "M'sorry, did I fall asleep?"

"You did," Yang cooed gently, "but that's okay. You can talk to Ruby another time. I think it’s time we got some sleep anyway, baby.”

"No, I-" Blake protested sleepily again, “Ruby, I'm so sorry, please continue - did Pyrrha’s character make it out?”

Ignoring Yang’s pointed stare, Ruby nodded enthusiastically, forgetting Blake couldn’t actually see her. “She did, yeah! No, she made it alright, made a saving throw and like, managed to do some crazy acrobatics thing to dodge the falling rocks-”

“Ruby,” Yang tutted disapprovingly, “Blake and I need to get to sleep now, alright?”

“Oh, alright alright. Fine!” Ruby mock-scowled as Yang ruffled her hair affectionately and pulled her into a hug. “It was nice to talk to you Blake! Hope you sleep well, love you! Goodnight!” She chirruped into the phone before bouncing out of Yang’s hug and to her own room to get herself ready for bed too.

“Still awake on me there, babe?” Yang hummed gently, putting her phone to her ear again to better hear her sleepy girlfriend’s soft voice.

“Mm,” Blake replied, just barely. She must’ve been just on the edge of falling asleep before Ruby had come through the door. But her silence that followed wasn’t the quiet that Yang had come to associate with gentle sleep. 

“Whatcha thinking about?” Yang asked as she settled herself back into bed, putting her phone on the pillow next to her head - Blake’s usual spot. Until she could fill it with her actual warmth and softness, it would have to do.

“Your sister,” came the reply - and now _yeah,_ there was the heaviness that Yang knew to mean that Blake was drifting into unconsciousness.

Yang couldn’t help but laugh though, because in her exhaustion, Blake was slipping into her nonsensical sort of answers. “She’s pretty great, yeah,” Yang smirked, flipping onto her back so that her voice was stolen by the ceiling, the sounds from her lips entirely taken by the stars.

“She.. treats me like family,” Blake murmured right next to Yang’s ear, and it was what she loved the most about their calls. Being able to hear her so close, to shut her eyes and imagine Blake next to her for real, tucked into her side and whispering into her ear… that was everything.

_Family…,_ Yang thought for an extended moment, lifting her left hand out from under her blankets and held it above her face, gazing at the dark outline of her fingers through the moonlight filtering through her curtains. Softly, she dared, “...is that something you’d want someday, Blake?" She closed her hand in a fist, imagining body-warmed metal encircling her finger.

"Already family to me," Blake said, her words fading into a sigh, which disappeared into a tiny contented snore. 

Yang almost cried at the profound simplicity in those words. Words that meant Blake had long since accepted her, had long since wanted her. Loved her. And though she hadn't said it in so many words, Blake said she saw a future with her, and that that future was already their present. The life they were living right now, together. "I love you so much, Blake," Yang whispered, turning her head to blow kisses towards the microphone. Then, more to herself than anything, a soft breath, "You’ll be my wife someday. I promise."

* * *

“We've been through a lot today, baby,” Yang murmured quietly into her phone that lay next to her. She traced the edges of the screen, allowing her imagination to wander and feel soft skin under her fingertips instead of hard plastic and glass. “And I couldn't be more proud of you, y'know?”

“Me?!” Blake asked, shocked. Her voice warmed Yang better than any hot drink, better than the sunrise on a winter morning. “You're the one who called up my boss and told him off for being a negligent shithead! Babe, that long distance call on your bill-”

“Worth it,” Yang smirked to herself. “Hearing him lose his shit in the background while his manager apologized to me? Fucking priceless.”

“The guy is delusional,” Blake agreed with a laugh and Yang _missed_ her. “Thank you for sticking up for me, baby.”

“Of course!” Yang replied without hesitation, “There's _nothing_ I wouldn't do for you. I love you so much - I just.. I wish I could do more.”

“You did enough for me today,” Blake assured her. “You could've gotten in trouble, or.. I don't know-”

“I would do it a thousand times over for you. You were uncomfortable with that coworker's advances, he wasn't listening to you or respecting you _at all,_ and your boss was doing absolutely fuck all to ensure your safety!” Yang felt herself flush in anger at the memory of all the times Blake had told her about that creepy asshole. It made her skin crawl. “It was just lucky for _him_ that I live so far away.”

“And for you!” Blake protested, “If you'd been here, you would've gone to jail! Or worse.”

“But at least I would've _been there_ ,” Yang said, a heavy note of sadness weighing down her heart, pitching her tone lower. “No one would've even gone _near_ you if I'd been there. They would've known I was yours. They would've seen I'd do anything to keep you. As long as you'd have me.”

“Yang…,” Blake started softly, and Yang, not for the first time, cursed the darkness. Phone calls until they fell asleep were honestly the highlight of her night, but yet… she wanted to _see_ her. To trace dips and paths of the topography of her features, to know the beauty of her skin soaked in half-light. To know the feel of her soft breath.

But it was only ever her voice. She should be grateful, the wonders of technology, but… 

“Hey. Come back to me,” Blake's voice pulled her out from her thoughts. “We'll be together soon, okay? It'll happen. We'll make it work. Together.”

“Together,” Yang agreed after a beat that felt too heavy to be gravity. She needed this woman like the blood in her veins, like the cells of her skin. She was incomplete, they both were. But they'd found each other when so far apart, it was only a matter of time before their atoms drew together like destiny. Fate would be kind to them both. There would be no other acceptable answer.


	2. the distance that holds us together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang plans a surprise visit for their six month anniversary.

"Alright, alright lover girl, relax," Ilia's voice broke through Yang's excited rambling. "This is a very sweet and wonderful plan, but if you asphyxiate from excitement first, it'll all go to waste."

"Sorry," Yang grinned, far from it. She switched her phone to her other ear as she flopped onto her couch, glancing over at her desktop browser where ticket prices to Florida flashed every so often. "I just… it's our six month anniversary, you know? It _has_ to be special. Because she's special - more than that, even! She's everything to me."

"It would be cute if those words weren't so disgusting," Ilia scoffed, but Yang knew her voice well enough by now to know that she was hiding a careful grin. Not as well as Blake's voice obviously, but she was Blake's best friend and Yang _still_ remembered being absolutely grilled by her after dating Blake for about a month. She'd since stopped being terrified of her, but she'd be lying if she didn't admit to having a healthy amount of respect for Blake's oldest and closest friend. 

"So are you gonna help me plan this surprise or not?"

“Piece of cake,” Ilia said breezily. “You came to the right person, sweetie. We’ve got, what? A month? Won't be a problem.”

“Oh thank _god_ ,” Yang heaved out a long breath, lifting all the bundled up anxiety and panic and nerves and excitement off her chest. “Because I _absolutely_ have no idea where to start.”

“Fucking… hell. Okay,” Ilia let out a long-suffering sigh. “Let’s start with what you’ll be wearing.”

"...what I'm wearing?"

  
  
  


Three weeks passed and thankfully Blake was none the wiser to Yang's plan. Which, if Yang paused to think about it for more than two seconds, was a huge surprise due to the fact that basically _everyone_ in Yang and Blake’s combined friend group knew about Yang’s plan. And _everyone_ included Sun.

“Don’t even worry about it!” he said breezily, waving his arm from behind Ilia as they video called to talk last-minute details. “She still thinks the reason you’ve been so busy these last few days is because you’ve been getting ready for your big _climbing competition_ ,” Sun tossed in air quotes.

“I know, I know,” Yang started, rubbing her forehead. “I just… I hate lying to her, y’know? Plus, she’s been wanting to see me climb in a competition for _ages_ and I had to make up some bullshit excuse that they don’t allow video recording at the gym? It’s not like it’s some kind of exclusive event!”

“Don’t worry, Yang,” Ilia reassured her firmly. “Sun promised he’d help distract her for the day - it’ll all work out once you walk through the door, okay?”

“You can count on that!” Sun saluted, tipping himself over in a completely unnecessary cartwheel. “I’ve got so many video games lined up-”

“It’s only _one day_ , Sun,” Ilia rolled her eyes at him. “Like, ten to twelve hours tops. It’s not like you’ll need to distract her for the whole week or anything.”

“Yeah, the rest of the week will be _my_ job,” Yang smirked, sticking out her tongue and lifting her hand to make a certain gesture.

“Oh _god,_ don’t test me Yang, I’m going to hang up, I swear-”

“No, no, _wait_ , don’t!” Yang flailed her arms in a panic. “No, it’s fine - I’ll stop, see? Please, you gotta help me Ilia!”

“ _Boy,_ you were right,” Sun blew out a long breath in disbelief, “she’s a _mess_.”

“Yeah yeah, go on,” Yang grumbled as Ilia snickered in agreement and slapped him a high five. “Make fun of me, laugh it up - I’m only absolutely a bundle of completed shredded nerves over all of this and could sure use some _real_ encouragement right now?”

“Okay, hey - whoa,” Ilia said, reigning in her laughter almost immediately. “What’s there to be nervous about in all of this? Yang… Blake _loves_ you. She’ll be beside herself when you show up at her house - she’ll probably implode, honestly.”

“It’s…,” Yang sucked in a breath, thoughts racing and barely escaping organization. “It’s just… it’s everything about this whole trip, you know? I love her, of course I do - and that’s the only thing that matters at the end of the day, but… it’s all the other details that might go wrong, like meeting her parents in person for the first time too, that’s _huge_ , I…”

“Oh, please Yang,” Sun scoffed through a grin, somehow dodging a derisive tone by a mile. “Even _I_ know that Mr. and Mrs. Belladonna love you, they’ll be almost as thrilled as Blake!”

“Exactly, they _adore_ you - other than me, it’s like you’re already their second, well _third_ , daughter,” Ilia nodded. “So unless you do something really stupid between now and your arrival, like, I dunno - forgetting to tell them that you’re coming, I don’t see-”

“Like forgetting to tell them that I’m coming!” Yang cut in with a horribly high-pitched hysteric laugh. “Right, ‘cause that would be really _really_ stupid, right? Imagine not telling them… ha….”

Ilia just stopped dead. “Yang, I am _really_ trying to give you the benefit of the doubt right now…,” she said, taking a long breath in and pressing her fingers to her pursed lips as she prayed for patience. Then she exploded. “But _how_ in the _actual fuck_ did you forget to tell her parents?!”

“I uh… well, I _definitely_ was going to, it was totally on my list-!”

“Sun,” Ilia growled, scaring the poor boy stiff for a moment. “I’m gonna need your phone right now.”

“Oh, uh, yeah, of - of course!” he stammered, slipping his phone out from his back pocket and handing it to Ilia. “What do you need it for?”

She held up a finger as she scrolled through his contacts and dialled a number, putting it up to her ear as she glared at Yang through their video call. “Oh hi, Kali, I- no, no, it’s Ilia! Just borrowing Sun’s phone for a minute, I had a question to ask you,” she said, and the whole time she spoke, her bright, easygoing words were completely contradicted by the disbelieving stare she levelled at Yang.

...what was that thing that Yang had said about not being terrified of Blake’s oldest friend anymore? _Right. Shit._

“So you see, Yang has been planning this whole secret visit to see Blake for their six month anniversary… I know, how very sweet of her,” Ilia agreed with a light laugh even as she stuck her tongue out in Yang’s direction. “It’s _so secret,_ in fact, that _apparently_ she forgot to tell the two most important people about it!” 

Yang just buried her face in her hands as she sat through the humiliation of Ilia’s indirect scolding. In the background, Sun shifted on his feet awkwardly, his face scrunching in second-hand embarrassment. 

“Alright, well, I’ll be sure to have her call you in just a moment here. Yep, it was nice talking with you too, Kali. Bye now,” Ilia hung up, passing Sun’s phone back to him as she addressed Yang. “ _You_ have a call to make, missy,” she said, before abruptly ending the call.

As it turned out, Kali thought it was absolutely _adorable_ that Yang had been too nervous to call and inform them of her plans - not that she’d actually been nervous, of course! Not at all! 

“Yang, sweetheart,” Kali had spoken gently over the phone in such a calm way that instantly soothed Yang’s shredded nerves. “I would be more than happy to pick you up from the airport. Ghira has work, so unfortunately he won't be able to see you until just before dinner, but I’ll pull some strings at Blake’s work so that she’ll be home early for when you arrive.”

“You think of everything, Mrs. Belladonna,” Yang had sighed, combing her fingers through her hair as she mentally ran through the list of things she’d had packed.

“Just Kali, dear,” she said. “It’s the least I can do for the woman who has captured my daughter’s heart, after all.”

  
  


Kali was even more gentle and calming in person. But even sitting next to her in the passenger seat, listening to the hum of the wheels and the soft music that bled through the air conditioned interior did little to calm the anxiety and excitement that thrummed through Yang's veins. She was on her way to see Blake. To meet her _in person._

She kinda wanted to throw up from all the butterflies in her stomach.

“Just another half hour, dear,” Kali glanced at her for a moment with a reassuring smile, perhaps noticing Yang's deer-in-headlights expression out of the corner of her eye. “Would you like to stop for a moment?”

The thought of stopping, of putting _more_ time between that current second and the second that Blake was in her arms, put even more butterflies in her stomach than before. So many that they crowded their way up her windpipe and blocked off her words. So she just shook her head roughly and kept her jaw clenched shut.

“That’s alright,” Kali said, reaching out towards Yang, keeping her eyes on the road as she offered her hand, palm out.

Yang didn’t even hesitate. Slipping her hand over Kali’s and holding tight, she managed to draw strength enough from the warmth to whisper, “Thank you.” Kali just smiled again as Yang squeezed her hand once, and thought of Blake’s arms.

“We’ll be there in about five minutes, Yang,” Kali spoke up softly. Yang turned from her blank stare out the window at the tree-lined streets passing by and trailed her gaze over Kali's profile, a little numb. “Are you certain that you’re still comfortable with Ilia recording the two of you meeting for the first time?”

Yang’s heart clenched at even just those small words - _meeting for the first time_. When Kali had suggested it during their latest call, Yang had debated the idea for a long time - and even now, she could feel the small insecurities rising at the idea of it. It was going to be a special moment for themselves alone and no one else. But the longer Yang had thought about it, the more she realized that it was also a moment that she wouldn’t want to lose to the passing of time, the faultiness of memory. So Yang had agreed.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she nodded resolutely. 

“Would you text Ilia and check in with her then, please?” she requested.

Yang hummed, pulling out her phone, ignoring the unopened message from Blake - _Good luck at your competition today, baby! Let me know how it goes, okay?_ \- and tapping out a quick text to Ilia. _Five minutes away & Kali just wants to make sure you were still up to record? _

“She talks about you all the time, you know,” Kali said as they hit a red light.

“Hm?” Yang glanced up from her phone, blinking in surprise. “Blake does?”

"Oh, don’t look so shocked, Yang," Kali laughed, and it was remarkable how similar the sound was to Blake's own giggles. _She must take after her mom the most,_ Yang thought with her own absent smile. "Or be so modest either, because the stories that Blake has told me…"

Just as she was about to respond, her phone buzzed with Ilia’s incoming message. The text was short, so Yang just glanced at the preview - _ya. second u 2 get gross tho, im out._ \- before replying to Kali with a small nervous laugh, “Well, you're still here. She must've said _some_ good things about me that weren't just my troublemaking ways."

“It’s more what she doesn’t say,” Kali amended, taking a right turn. “It’s the way her eyes light up even mentioning your name, or how she’ll sit with us at the dinner table and just grin like a goofball, or how she tears up out of happiness when her father comes home with a big package that has her name and hearts all over it. Even if she didn’t talk about you constantly, she wouldn’t have to say anything for me or Ghira to know that she really, really loves you, honey.”

_Oh_ , Yang flushed, burning up from her core. “Oh, I..,” she started awkwardly, coughing to try and ground herself before being overwhelmed. “Um… so is this the part where you, uh, y’know… give me _the talk_ about never breaking your baby girl’s heart?”

“I don’t think that’s ever something I’ll have to be worried about with you,” Kali smiled. “Though I should tell you, Ghira is _very_ fond of his shotgun.”

“Oh fuck.”

A few agonizing minutes later, Kali finally pulled up into the driveway of a lovely brick-front house. As Yang swung herself shakily out of the car, she took in the front yard with its cheerfully bubbling two-tier concrete fountain and well-trimmed shrubs leading up to the front porch. Where Ilia was casually leaning, as if the world wasn’t about to completely implode.

“Hey Yang,” she smirked, waving her phone as her eyes flashed mischievously. “You look like you’re about to throw up. Word of advice? Not in Mr. Belladonna’s hydrangeas. He’s very fond of them - almost as fond as he is of-”

“His shotgun,” Yang finished, tracing the rough grout between the bricks to ground herself as Kali slipped past her with a comforting squeeze to her shoulder. “I’ve been told.”

“Ready?” Kali asked, looking back at Yang and Ilia as she put the key into the lock. And waited.

The air suddenly felt heavy, weighted. Real. This wasn’t a dream. Any of it. Not the planning. Or the waiting. Or the entire trip. It was all coming together, just about to be realized right in this moment. Blake was going to be in her arms. After nearly six months of falling in love despite the distance, she’d finally know what Blake would feel like. She’d know the physical experience of holding her close in her arms, wrapping her tightly, breathing in her scent, tangling her fingers in her hair, the press of her soft lips against hers….

Behind them, Ilia lifted her phone and started to record, flashing a thumbs up as Kali opened the door. “She’s in her room,” Kali pointed towards a set of stairs that opened up to a landing as Yang followed her into the house. “Just that door there.”

Yang might’ve nodded, might’ve said something to express her appreciation, but her world, her thoughts, her soon-to-be memories of this moment, they all honed in on six steps and a white door with a golden handle, and the sound of battle noises and explosions.

And, as she drew closer, Blake’s victorious shouting. Yang made a mental note to thank Sun later for his help in keeping Blake company.

“Just wait until I tell Yang about this Sun, she’s gonna laugh _so_ hard-!”

“Blake...,” she whispered, her heart leaping out of her chest as she stopped in front of her door. Shakily, she pulled in a deep lungful of air. Lifted a trembling hand, watched as it hung for an eternity in empty space.

  
  
  


Then knocked.


	3. the feel of your heart in my hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang arrives at Blake's house, and it feels like they were never apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who got carried the fuck away!! Me!!! Because I thought I'd be done by the third chapter, but there's just too much content for this AU that I want to tackle, so y'all are going to get another (and hopefully final, this time) chapter after this one!
> 
> Sorry for leaving you on that major cliffhanger from before! Hopefully the length of this chapter (10k??? what!!) makes up for that wait! Enjoy :)

A knock cut off Blake’s celebratory bragging as Sun’s character slumped in defeat on screen - a perfect match to his over-dramatic complaining in her ears. “Just hang on. I think my mom wants something,” she said, pulling off her headset and setting her controller down on the nightstand.

She crossed her room, a little confused as to why she hadn’t just come in like usual, and pulled open the door. “Was there something-” she started, then immediately choked as the breath was yanked from her lungs at the sight of the person on the other side of the door.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Blake gaped, feeling dizzy. _Yang was_ _here._ She was _here,_ standing right in front of her, in the narrow landing that suddenly seemed so much brighter. Her girlfriend. Yang. _Here._ “Oh my _god,_ I….” She couldn’t move, frozen in place for a long extended moment of disbelief, afraid that if she moved, this very real hallucination would shatter.

“Uh,” Yang offered sheepishly, kicking a toe into the carpet as she lifted her hand in an awkward, tiny cute-as-the-heavens-who-sent-her wave. “Hey babe?”

“You’re _here_ ,” left her lungs in a rush as she threw herself into Yang’s arms without a second thought, like the sound of her voice that she knew impossibly well had suddenly propelled her into motion.

Yang caught her. Easily. Entirely. “Surprise,” she murmured with a low-rolling laugh that sent her frame trembling.

“You’re actually _here,_ I...” Blake breathed, burying her nose into Yang's hair and inhaled deeply until she was dizzy. She pulled back, seeing stars haloing Yang’s head as about a million questions spun around in her brain. But her gaze was pulled inexorably to Yang’s lips and she forget entirely about what it was like to wait.

Yang surged forward to meet her before she even had a chance to do much more than flutter her eyes shut and captured her lips in a perfectly messy embrace. And got lost in it. Nothing she could've ever dreamed - that _either of them_ could've dreamed - would've ever come close to matching the feel of their souls uniting together at last, spinning high into the atmosphere and cloaking them both in supernovas.

A wolf whistle in the distant space below them yanked them back into orbit and a gentle laugh set their feet back on soil. Blake and Yang turned, staring down over the bannister with similar stunned expressions - as if they'd been exposed to a vacuum in an airlock - to find Kali smiling up at them softly. And Ilia sniggering uncontrollably.

"You guys should see your faces right now," Ilia smirked, then held up a hand. "No, no, wait. I got this," she quickly snapped a picture and immediately started tapping at her phone. "Sun will _kill_ himself laughing over this-"

"Wait, I- Ilia?!" Blake stammered, completely nonplussed as she drifted down the stairs in a trance. She turned back to Yang, holding her hand out absently, like magnetism, as Yang followed her back down to the main floor. “ _She’s in on this_?!”

“Well, actually-”

“Oh, hon,” Ilia shook her head, almost patronizing as she clicked her tongue sympathetically. “ _Everyone_ was in on this. Your girlfriend here was too excited to keep her mouth shut.”

Yang gave another sheepish smile, her eyebrows furrowing together in an indecently adorable way. “Guilty,” she murmured, quickly losing track of the room as Blake’s eyes found hers again. “Can you blame me, though?”

Blake hummed. “No… I suppose I really can’t,” she replied, stretching upwards to pull Yang into another kiss, before stopping to look sharply over at Ilia, as if suddenly catching onto something.

“Hey-” Yang grumbled, her lips skipping clumsily across the corner of Blake’s.

“You were _filming!_ ” Blake accused, lifting a finger in Ilia’s direction, only stopping herself from advancing on her because that would mean leaving the warmth of Yang’s touch. 

“As requested,” Ilia shrugged, shifting her focus to her phone as it lit up with a text. “Sun’s absolutely losing his mind, by the way.”

“You’ll thank her for that later, Blake dear,” Kali put in, still radiating quiet elation over their meeting. “It’ll be perfect footage for the wedding.”

Yang’s jaw hung open as Blake burned red, turning back into Yang’s safety to hide her embarrassment. Yang’s arms automatically circled around her torso, hand coming up to cradle the back of her head into her chest. The near-unconscious action on her part just made Kali grin even more widely as she raised her eyebrows in an expression that would’ve been best described as _smug_ if Yang didn’t think her to be a more dignified woman.

“Mrs. Belladonna, I-” Yang started, tripping over her tongue.

“It’s just Kali, remember dear,” she said once again, turning to head back into the kitchen to start dinner. “Though you may want to start getting used to calling me _mom_ soon.”

“Oh my _god_ , kill me, kill me _kill me_ ,” Blake whispered into Yang’s shoulder, burning up and mortified.

“Have fun you two!” Ilia sing-songed as she let herself out, her mercilessly teasing cackle punctuated by the slam of the front door.

  
  


Dinner was a fairly quiet affair. Mostly because Ghira spent the entire meal sitting opposite Yang and staring her down unrelentingly. Even though Yang was an excellent conversationalist in nearly all circumstances, charming and witty and easily beloved, the weight of Ghira’s gaze had her throat closing nervously and kept her silent. Blake glanced between her panicked girlfriend and her stone-faced father, and rolled her eyes. “ _Dad_ ,” she grumbled, setting her fork down with some force.

“Yes, dear?” he said, _finally_ turning his attention from Yang’s slowly paling face to address his daughter with a smile.

“Oh for _fu_ -” Blake started, exasperated.

“Let the poor girl breathe, hon,” Kali cut in, laying a hand on Ghira’s arm. “She’s going to be here for a week, isn’t it best that you try getting along?”

Yang blinked, swallowing nervously to see if her throat was functioning properly enough to keep eating. She felt a gentle hand on her knee and looked over to see Blake reassuring her with a small smile. “Don’t worry babe,” she whispered conspiratorially under her breath, leaning in close to Yang’s ear. “He’s just putting on the concerned father act. He’s _always_ asking me how you’re doing whenever he sees me on the phone with you.”

Yang dropped her hand under the table to cover Blake’s and squeezed. She turned her head so that their faces were almost parallel to each other, revelling in the electric feel of the barest touch of her cheek next to Blake’s. “So… since we’re on the phone all the time….”

Blake giggled, nuzzling into Yang’s neck instinctively, “Exactly.”

“See, Kali,” Ghira’s loud voice made both of them jump slightly. “The girl’s made of tough stuff, she can handle a little fatherly interrogation!”

Bolstered by Blake’s touch, Yang finally let out a laugh. “You won't be getting rid of me that easily, Mr. Belladonna,” Yang grinned, feeling like the air was lighter, allowing her ribs to expand with her breaths. “I love your daughter. And I’m planning on sticking around.”

Ghira regarded her for another long moment but this time, Yang held his gaze unwaveringly, a silent challenge to the set of her jaw. Finally, he broke out in a grin. "She's a keeper, this one," Ghira chuckled, wagging his finger at her.

"Yeah," Blake said softly, lifting Yang's hand to her lips and kissing her knuckles softly. "I think so too."

“So,” Yang huffed out, tossing herself backwards onto Blake’s bed. It was soft, and smelled like lavender. It seemed fitting, somehow. “That was… an interesting dinner, huh?” 

Blake just stood on the opposite side of her room, back to her dresser mirror, comb held in loose fingers as she stared at her girlfriend wordlessly.

“What?” Yang asked.

“I just… _you_ ,” Blake responded, setting down the comb and walking slowly over to Yang, as if in a trance. “I was getting ready for bed just now, sure I had dreamed it all up in my mind and then... I turned around. And you were still here.”

“I’m still here, baby,” Yang murmured, reaching out her hand to Blake as she drifted over. “Let me prove it to you.”

Blake hummed, settling herself down onto her own bed that suddenly seemed so much warmer and more welcoming than it ever had in her entire life. “Prove it how?”

Yang leaned in close, brushing their noses together just barely and watched Blake’s eyes flutter shut as she waited for the feel of Yang’s lips against hers… before going in for the kill. “Gotcha!” she crowed, digging her fingers into Blake’s sides and wiggling them mercilessly.

Blake’s eyes flew open as she let out a shriek. “Yang!” she exclaimed, toppling backwards off her bed with a loud _thud_ that reverberated through the whole floor. “You little shit!” 

Yang couldn’t hold back her uproarious laughter as she followed Blake over the side, landing with an even _louder_ thud that tangled her limbs amongst Blake’s, caging her pleasantly underneath her. “You made a mistake in telling me where you were ticklish, Belladonna!” Yang grinned. “‘Cause now I’m gonna be watching you for any opportunity to utilize this knowledge to my advantage!”

“Hmm,” Blake smirked, and suddenly, Yang felt like she had just lost the upper hand despite being physically _above_ her. “So you’re going to be watching my _every_ move? I think _that’s_ something I can live with,” Blake said, her eyes darkening just a shade and, well. How was Yang supposed to resist _that_?

She leaned down for another kiss like magnetism, her hands shifting to frame Blake’s head for balance and intimacy. Even though this was only their second kiss, Yang knew exactly in that moment, as Blake’s tongue swiped across her lower lip, that she would absolutely never ever tire of kissing this girl. Not now, or in any lifetime.

“Do you two need anything?” Blake’s bedroom door banged open and the two were startled apart, cheeks flushed and pupils blown wide. “Some snacks? Water? A c-"

“ _Mom!_ What are you doing?!” Blake shrieked again, completely mortified. Yang felt like she should’ve been equally mortified but honestly, she couldn’t stop staring at Blake’s kiss-swollen lips. And thinking about how _good_ they’d felt against her own….

“Okay, alright, I’m sorry honey!” Kali lifted her hand placatingly as she started to back out into the hallway, pulling the door closed. “I just want to make sure my baby’s being safe!”

“Oh my _god,_ out!” Blake growled, burying her face in her hands the moment Kali had shut the door. “For fuck’s sake, I am _so_ sorry,” she said the second she was able to chance a peek out past her fingers, still burning from shame.

“Don’t apologize,” Yang couldn’t help but laugh again, pulling herself upright so that she was leaning her back against Blake’s bedframe. She wrapped an arm around Blake’s shoulders and guided her into her side as she continued, “I love it when you’re feisty.”

“God,” she sighed, exasperated as she nudged her head against Yang’s jaw. “You’re such a dork.”

“A dork who is suddenly… very… extremely tired,” Yang said through a body-gaping yawn. She tipped her head back onto Blake’s mattress and let her body sag against Blake’s for a moment, vaguely wondering if she’d actually end up falling asleep there.

“That would be the jetlag, babe,” Blake murmured, kissing her cheek gently. “Where are your things? You should get changed and ready for bed.”

Yang didn’t even crack an eye open. “They’re… uh… still at the door, actually. I think.”

“I’ll go get them,” Blake said, kissing her cheek once more. Just because she could. Because they had so many promised kisses stored up and owed to them both. “Just make yourself at home, I’ll be right back.”

As Blake stepped out into the hallway and shut the door softly behind her, she instantly realized one thing - going to the front meant having to pass by her parents. She winced in second-hand embarrassment for her future self, then tried to make it down the hallway as quickly as possible to get Yang’s luggage. 

She had only just gotten her hand around the handle of the suitcase when someone cleared their throat behind her. Blake turned, slowly, sheepishly, to find her parents both sitting at the kitchen table, staring at her like meerkats. Well, her mom was, at least.

Her father just looked uncomfortable. “Blake, your mother and I wanted to-”

“Oh my god, _no_ , we’re not having _the talk_ right now,” Blake shook her head violently as she quickly turned to wheel Yang’s luggage back to the room.

“One thing, honey,” Kali’s soft voice stopped her almost immediately. “It’s not about us embarrassing you, alright? We just want you and Yang both to enjoy your time together here, however that looks for you both,” Kali said as Blake tried her best not to bury her face in her hands again, or even better, stuff her fingers in her ears and shut her eyes. “But this week will be a very emotionally intense time for the two of you, after you’ve been together for as long as you have. And I just want you to know, and Yang too, that your father and I will be here for you both, to share in your happiness and to listen to your stories.”

 _Oh._ “Oh,” Blake swallowed past a lump of sudden emotion in her throat, her eyebrows furrowing in slight confusion. “Mom, I… that’s uh.. not at all what I was expecting you to say…”

“Come here, honey,” Kali stood, holding out her arms to her daughter as Ghira stepped up behind them both and enveloped them all in a family group hug. “Your father and I will always be here for you. And for Yang too. She’s a part of our family now, and we love her just as much as we love you, baby.”

“Thanks, mom. I love you both, so much,” she whispered, sinking into their embrace for a long moment and feeling their love soak all the way down into her bones.

Yang definitely _had not_ accidentally drifted off to sleep in the several minutes it took Blake to come back with her suitcase. Which is why she absolutely _did not_ nearly jump out of her skin when she felt Blake’s gentle hand shaking her shoulder. “Yang?”

“ _Agh, fuck,_ wha- what time is it, did I miss my flight, I-” Yang stammered, toppling over, blinking several times as she tried to gather her bearings. “Oh, I, uh.. Blake! I’m totally awake, see!”

Blake giggled quietly as Yang rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, her mouth twisting adorably as she fought another yawn. “Sorry that took so long, baby,” Blake said, leaving Yang’s suitcase at the foot of the bed before plopping herself next to Yang on the floor. “My parents had some… _things_ to say to me.”

At that, Yang perked up, the twist in her lips becoming more pronounced. “Oh no,” she started, eyebrows drawing together in consternation. Her voice dropped to a mortified whisper as she continued, “Did they give you… _the talk_?”

Blake laughed again, shaking her head. “No, but I definitely thought they were,” she said. “My mom _did_ just catch us making out on the floor of my bedroom, so….”

“You’re making it sound like we’ll just have to make sure she _doesn’t_ catch us next time,” Yang smirked, poking a tongue past teasing lips.

“She was really sweet, actually,” Blake replied, smacking Yang on the back of her head for good measure. “Saying stuff about how excited she was that you were here, how they already love you _so_ much and…” Blake trailed off, feeling emotion rise in her lungs, and how it all was becoming so familiar, how quickly _Yang_ was starting to feel like home.

“And?” Yang caught, offering the unfinished sentence back onto Blake’s tongue, and patiently waiting. 

Blake cleared her throat, but it didn’t matter. The next words sprung small tears in her eyes, as if speaking them out loud suddenly brought out their true meaning. Slowly, “She said that… you’re already part of our family.”

Yang’s mind flashed to a night that felt like lifetimes ago, when she offered her hand to the universe and imagined a unified ring of metal around her finger. “Like you’re a part of mine,” Yang murmured in reply, kissing her temple, her cheek, the tiny freckles on the tip of her nose. 

“How did I get so lucky?” Blake whispered.

Yang leaned her forehead against Blake’s, nuzzling their noses together. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“I just… I still can’t believe that you’re _here_. That you’re really actually here.”

Yang hummed, feeling exhaustion lay across her shoulders like a weighted blanket. “I’m here,” she said. “And I’ll still be here in the morning when you wake up.”

Blake returned the nose kiss with a gentle smile, slowly rising to her knees while still supporting Yang’s tired frame. “Then c’mon,” she slid her arms underneath Yang, lifting her in a seemingly effortless bridal carry. “Let’s get you out of those gross travel clothes and into something more comfortable.”

“Undressing me already, Belladonna? You haven’t even taken me out on a date yet,” Yang mumbled, her eyes already fluttering shut as Blake deposited her gently on the bed. “Smells nice,” she remarked as Blake turned to Yang’s suitcase.

“You’re incorrigible,” Blake laughed, pulling out Yang’s PJs, which were neatly packed right on top. “But I’m not sleeping with you while you smell like recycled air and have other people’s germs all over you.”

She turned back to Yang, PJs in hand, eyebrows lifted in expectation of a sassy reply. But she was merely greeted instead by gentle snores. And her heart melted as she slowly sank down onto the other side of the bed. “Gods, you’re so _beautiful_ ,” Blake sighed, combing her fingers gently through Yang’s hair as it was fanned out across her pillow. It was just as soft as she had imagined it would be. 

Then she leaned down to kiss her forehead before turning her attention to Yang’s clothes, glancing over her outfit and silently thanking her girlfriend for dressing comfortably. Dealing with tight jeans would’ve been a nightmare. 

Blake shifted closer to Yang on the bed, reaching for the waistband of Yang’s sweats before stopping abruptly in realization. This was _intimate_. Yang’s face was so… unguarded and soft in her sleep and the heavy weight of trust settled on her shoulders as she lifted one hip, and then the other, making space for her pants to slip easily down her long legs. Then she tugged gently at the fabric bunched up around her ankles and dropped them at the foot of her bed. They could deal with them in the morning.

She paused in her care, taking an extended moment to give a long regarded look towards her girlfriend, still not quite able to process her awe. She really _was_ here, had put all of that effort and planning into coming to see her for their sixth month anniversary - just a few days away now. And she’d done it all as a complete surprise. “Gods,” she murmured to herself, tracing Yang’s face with the barest of reverent touches. “You really are a wonder. To do all of this… for _me_ , I…”

A declaration of love sat just on the edge of her breath - but she held back. Not that it wasn’t true, or that they’d never said it before. The very opposite, of course, but… there was something special about those words while in each other’s physical presence, and Blake didn’t want their weight to be lost to unconscious silence.

So instead, she simply finished dressing Yang in her pajamas - lifting each body part with the care of gold - and slid under the covers with her after turning out her bedroom light. “Goodnight, baby,” she murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek and tucking herself into Yang’s side, like her body was made for her. 

In her sleep, Yang’s arms settled around Blake’s frame as her mouth twitched into a soft smile.

  
  
  


The next morning, Blake was on fire. Very comfortably on fire.

“Wh’the _fuck_ ,” she mumbled, her eyes blinking open in confusion at the overpowering heat, and was greeted by a mass of yellow flames. A yawn pushed its way past her lips as her mouth lifted question marks from her throat, a confused garble of sound filling the space between her face and the wall of golden fire.

“Looks like someone’s finally awake,” the fire spoke.

And then hearing that voice, the one she knew impossibly well, it just _clicked._

“ _Yang_ ,” Blake said thickly, feeling like she was about to cry as she remembered the events of last night.

“Hey, sleeping beauty,” Yang grinned at her as she propped herself up on her forearm so she could get a better look at her little disgruntled expression. “God, you’re so fucking adorable first thing in the afternoon.”

“And you look like you just walked through the set of a children’s morning show,” Blake blinked, rubbing her eyes slowly. “ _How_ are you so perky in the - wait. Did you say _afternoon_?”

“Yep!” Yang exclaimed with a pop of punctuation. The noise drew Blake’s attention to Yang’s lips and for the next few moments, they were the only things that Blake could focus on. “I already got up and ate breakfast with your folks actually- mmph!”

Blake propped herself up with a suddenness that surprised even herself, given that it’d only been a few minutes since she’d awoke, and leaned over to capture Yang’s lips, pushing her back down into the mattress. Held the kiss for several long moments before pulling back slowly. “I love you,” she said.

Yang’s face lit with a smile, dropping more logs on the bonfire, and sparks of joy flew. Infectious. And catching. “I love you too. So much,” she murmured, stretching her neck to steal another swift kiss. “Now c’mon,” she said, pushing herself up once more. “I made sure to save you some pancakes from the absolute _cavern_ that is your dad’s hunger.”

Blake’s stomach growled at the mention of pancakes and she laughed, threading her fingers through Yang’s. “Thank you, baby,” she said, tugging her up out of bed. “You’re a brave woman, standing between the beast that is Ghira Belladonna’s appetite and his hoard of food.”

“Anything for my princess,” Yang bent down in a low sweeping bow, gesturing dramatically to the door. “After you, milady.”

Blake lifted Yang’s hands to her lips, smiling against the soft skin there before pressing a gentle kiss against her knuckles. “How gracious of you, fair knight.”

  
  


Breakfast was a much more gentle affair than their last meal at that table. As soon as they ambled into the kitchen, with Blake trailing behind and still rubbing sleep out of her eyes, Kali bustled over to the stove to pull out the remaining pancakes that were keeping warm in the oven. “Finally, she wakes!” she said with a smile as she placed the plate down in front of the chair that Yang had pulled out for Blake. “We weren’t sure how much longer we would be able to hold Ghira off.”

Ghira just grumbled, glancing up at Yang as she settled herself in the chair beside Blake. “Your girlfriend sure was walking a dangerous line to keep your breakfast safe there, Blake,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I have to say that I’m impressed.”

Yang just laughed as she started passing down different pancake toppings to Blake while Kali came by to press a quick kiss to the top of Blake’s head before sitting down at the other end of the table across from Ghira. “And how did you sleep, dear?” she asked Blake.

“Good,” she replied simply, as she accepted the syrup from Yang with a small smile. Yang hummed, content to just prop her chin in the palm of her hand and drink in the sight of her girlfriend first thing in the morning. The bedhead and slight tired hunch to her shoulders made her even _more_ radiant, somehow. 

Blake paused just as she was about to take her first bite. She set her fork down with a sleepy thoughtfulness as she glanced over at Yang, then at her mom. “Is that what it feels like?” she asked quietly.

“Hm?” Kali blinked as Yang raised an eyebrow, tilting her head in confusion.

Softly, turning her gaze toward Yang, “Sleeping next to someone you love.”

“Oh _Blake_ …,” Yang couldn’t stop the sigh that rose past her lips as tears of adoration pinpricked at the corners of her eyes. “Baby…,” she whispered, reaching out and taking Blake’s hand within hers, squeezing tight.

Blake squeezed back three times in response, brushing a thumb gently across her knuckles as she smiled, her face softening with an expression of love that was unquantifiable.

“Yes, dear,” Kali replied gently, looking over at Ghira as she reached over and rubbed Blake’s shoulder soothingly. Ghira met her eyes above his folded hands, smile just barely hidden at the interaction happening before them. “That’s what it feels like.”

“Then I never want to live without it,” Blake murmured, fighting the temptation to rest her head against Yang’s shoulder and forget all about breakfast.

Yang cupped Blake’s face with her free hand, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear before pulling her in close and pressing a kiss the the crown of her head. Against her hair, “You’ll never have to, baby. I promise you that.”

Blake stayed like that for a little while, basking in the warmth and the quiet while the atmosphere around them settled into an air of serenity, escaping into its own pocket of time. Until Kali broke the silence with a teasing chuckle. “Those aren’t going to get any warmer, dear,” she said, pointing to Blake’s breakfast.

“But what if I don’t want to move?” 

Yang laughed, squeezing her tightly before kissing her hair once more, held her lips there for a long moment as she breathed her in. Committed it to memory - _this is what home smells like. What it feels like._ Then she gently nudged her out of her arms, murmuring encouragingly, “Your mom - uh, I mean... _Kali_ is right. We’ve got an adventure ahead of us today, and you’re going to need as much energy as those pancakes will provide, babe.”

“An adventure?” she asked through a mouthful of pancake. “Where are we going?”

“Well, uh…,” Yang stammered, suddenly nervous as she drummed an arrhythmic staccato on the table with her fingers. “It’s was Ilia’s - okay well, actually Sun had suggested this, it’s kind of silly, really, but I figured since the weather is really nice today, there’s uh, this pop-up carnival thing nearby and-”

“Yang,” Blake reached over, stilling the nervous noise with her own gentle hand. She squeezed three times as she laced their fingers together, continuing gently, “That sounds absolutely lovely, really. There’s no need to be nervous, because no matter what your plan would’ve been, I still would’ve loved it. Because _you_ took the time to plan it for us. And simply because I’ll be with you, it’ll be enough. I promise.”

“Yeah,” Yang smiled softly, brushing her thumb against Blake’s hand. “Me too.”

  
  


The little pop-up amusement park was only a five minute drive away from Blake’s house, so they ended up taking to the sidewalks and having a leisurely stroll instead, joined hands swinging easily between them as they went. Their conversation flowed as naturally as their silences did, mostly filled with Blake talking about her childhood and pointing to different places as they passed through her neighbourhood. 

“That’s actually the first tree I ever climbed,” Blake gestured to a sprawling oak tree standing stately near the edge of a wide open field. “Yeah, when I was twelve, I packed snacks up in a little backpack and dragged Ilia out along with me.”

“All the way out here?” Yang asked as their path naturally diverted their feet towards the tree to explore. “Kinda far for a couple of kids, isn’t it?”

Blake just laughed and _god_ Yang absolutely loved the sound. Turned Blake around in her arms and squeezed her tight, giggles rolling through them both. “We made it out here, didn’t we? And, y’know - we’re _old_ ,” Blake paused, considered, studying the freckles that dusted across Yang’s face. Kissed the tip of her nose. “At least, _you_ are.”

“Excuse me!” Yang gasped, affronted. “We’re literally like only a few months apart, bitch!”

“I’m _your_ bitch though,” Blake said, her voice dropping just slightly, her thumbs hooking around the belt loops of Yang’s high-waisted shorts, her fingers tucking into her back pockets. 

Yang burned, a lot of _something_ skittering across her skin as Blake pressed close to her, pushing her back up against the rough tree bark. "Blake," Yang barely breathed, feeling lightheaded. Overwhelmed. Almost entirely out of her depth. Voice calls and texting were one thing, but…

"You okay?" Blake asked, leaning back just slightly to give Yang a chance to settle.

"You're just… incredibly fucking hot," she blurted. "And I _really_ don't know how to deal with it all at once."

Blake laughed again, and the music of it unknotted some of Yang's insides. She breathed a little easier, felt her temperature come down just slightly. "You're so cute," Blake pressed a gentle kiss to her still-red cheek. "And we can take this one step at a time, okay baby? There's no rush."

Yang swallowed, her hand coming up to tangle in her own hair in slight shame and embarrassment. "I just… I don't want you to think that I love you less or something because of the way I'm acting about it, I'm just… super nervous, I- yeah. That's all."

"Yang baby," Blake reassured, pulling her in for a fierce hug. "Of course I don't think that. It's _different_. I _know_ that it's different. We've done stuff before but… being together like this, it all changes things. There's no shame in being a little afraid or nervous. I am too, you know?"

" _You are_?"

"Of course I am! I mean, when was the last time you looked in a mirror, babe? You're like, way out of my league!" she held her arms out and gestured to _all_ of Yang. "Total smokeshow."

"You're one to talk," Yang smirked, brushing Blake's hair away from her eyes, and melting in her warm gaze all over again. "Miss Teenage Heartthrob!"

"Oh _god,"_ Blake spun out of Yang's reach, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "I _so_ regret telling you that story now - it was _one_ stupid high school popularity contest!"

"That you won by a _landslide_ , hello!" Yang caught up to her, slinging her arm across her shoulders smugly. "I should be so lucky - to win the heart of the one who was the gay awakening of many a highschool girl and the envy of the most popular jocks on the football team!"

"Yang?"

"Uh, yeah babe?"

"Be quiet." 

  
  


Several hours later, both Yang and Blake were out of breath and nearly exhausted. "Fuck," Yang huffed as they plunked themselves down on a park bench in an area with less foot traffic. "I don't know if it's the heat that I'm not really used to or the fact that I've had to basically bench press you every time you've leapt into my arms whenever you've gotten scared, but I'm fucking beat. Remind me to never take you into a haunted house ever again, okay?"

Blake leaned back against the wooden beams, mindful of splinters and exposed nails, and tilted her head towards the cloudless sky. "The first time was genuine," she admitted. "But the other eight times were just because I loved how easily you could carry me."

Yang's response was to dump her remaining water from her bottle over Blake's upturned face. "You are unbelievable."

Blake spluttered, sun-warmed water streaming down her face and onto her chest as she jerked upright. “I'm unbelievable? I just wanted to see if all those gym selfies you've sent me were for show or not!"

"Well clearly, they are _not_ ," Yang folded her arms with a huff, the new posture drawing out the definition of her upper arms and shoulders _tremendously_ well. "And now you owe me a drink."

"I owe _you_ a drink?!” Blake blinked in disbelief, trying - and failing - not to stare at Yang’s impressive muscles that were barely covered by her crop top. 

“Seeing as how mine is all over your _very_ distracting shirt… yes,” Yang grinned, looking unfairly hot with that smirk.

“Oh… yeah,” Blake returned fire, glancing down at her chest. “How very unfair of my absolutely _soaked_ t-shirt….” she couldn’t help but laugh as she fixed the hem of her shirt, very deliberately tugging it down so that her dark purple v-neck rode just a little lower, exposing that much more of her cleavage. “Sure, I’ll buy you a drink. You _are_ looking a little thirsty there, babe.”

“Yeah, I- _hey_ , now wait a minute!” Yang spluttered as Blake rightfully called her out on her staring. “I’m a simple lesbian - I see my girlfriend's boobs, I stare. Can you blame me?”

“No more than you can blame me for jumping ‘scared’ into your arms just to have an excuse to feel up your muscles,” Blake shrugged. “So I guess we’re even.”

“Then… who buys the drink?” Yang asked, confused as she followed Blake back onto the carnival grounds.

“I guess… whoever wins the biggest prize at the ring toss?" Blake pointed over to a carnival booth where a bored looking man with bright orange hair and a bowler hat was leaning.

“Ha! You’re on,” Yang grinned, stretching her arms up high above her head cockily. “You’re in for it, babe - Ruby and I used to go to these small pop-up fairs every year when we were little. I’m a pro at this shit.”

“Six dollars please,” the man drawled, holding his hand out with an eye roll. Yang reached into her pocket for her wallet and slapped a couple bills into his palm with a wink at Blake. 

“Watch and learn,” she said, taking the rings from the carnie and twirling one around her finger for show. Blake just folded her arms and tilted her head, a silent bemused smirk twisting at her lips as she watched Yang’s theatrics. “Hup!” Yang said as she tossed her first ring.

It gave a rather pathetic clink as it rattled uselessly against the bottles and onto the concrete. The man running the booth let out a snort. “And just what is it exactly that your girlfriend is supposed to be learning, little lady?”

Yang glowered at him, but couldn’t help but feel a little glow of pride and a surge of love at the man’s clear recognition of their relationship. It just felt so… wonderful. To be out in public like this, together and free. “You know what Blake,” Yang said, her demeanour changing in an instant as she turned to Blake, tapping on her chin thoughtfully. “I think I’ve been going about this the wrong way.”

“Oh? And what way was that?” Blake quirked an eyebrow at her. 

“You _know_ you look unfairly hot when you do that, I can’t concentrate-” Yang suddenly whined, her train of thought completely derailed at the way Blake’s face lit up in a beautiful blush.

“ _Yang_ ,” Blake swatted at her as she giggled, fighting a grin. “C’mon, you were about to win me a prize?”

Yang cleared her throat, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. She’d never take physically showing her affection for granted ever. Not while they had so little time together for now. She then flourished the second plastic ring in front of Blake’s face, before taking a slow moment to get down on one knee and- “Blake?”

Yang was beaming up at her with a giant goofy grin, her tone and her demeanour light and playful, but there was such a heavy undercurrent to her action that it took Blake’s breath away all the same. It made her fast forward several years - several months, several _days_ \- into the future where this woman was her whole world - and would remain so for the rest of her life. So she had no response, all other words stolen from her throat aside from a breathless, “Yes?”

“Will you… do the honor of bestowing your blessing upon this ring so that it may fly straight and true unto its target-”

 _That_ brought a snicker out of her, landing her back in the present where Yang was stupidly, _stupidly_ in love with her. “Straight?” she laughed, “I don’t think so, Yang. Not when _you’re_ the one throwing it.”

Yang pouted, lifting herself back up on her feet and waving the ring pathetically in the air. “You didn’t even let me finish asking you for your blessing for this final toss! Which, by the way,” she turned back to the man behind the counter, “is a complete rip off, I mean - only _two_ rings for six bucks? What is that?”

“It’s a _carnival_ , what did you expect?!” he threw his hands up in exasperation. “Now, will you just _throw_ already, lady? There’s people waiting here!”

Yang and Blake glanced behind themselves sheepishly to find all of… exactly _no one_ waiting for the ring toss. “Um, we’re the only ones here,” Yang pointed out.

“I didn’t mean any of _them_ , I meant me! _I’m_ waiting for this shit to be over!” he exclaimed, fixing the brim of his hat that he’d knocked askew. “Boy, you two sure are like a couple of newlyweds on their honeymoon.”

They both blushed heavily at the carnie’s words, shifting on their feet as they barely glanced at each other, overcome with a sudden tug of nervousness and excitement. They’d never talked about it before, not outright, but they both knew that they saw the other in their destiny - as inevitable as the full moon and the turning of the tides.

Blake was the first one to recover. She turned to Yang, slipped her hand gently underneath Yang’s palm and lifted it to her lips to brush a kiss against the back of her hand. “Win something for me, will you baby?”

“Why, if it’s your heart, then I think I already-”

“Would you _please_ just fucking throw it already!” he yelled, producing a curved wooden cane out of nowhere and smacking it on the counter that separated him from the carnival-goers, startling the suave response right out of Yang’s brain. “I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” he finished with a mutter.

“Right! Uh.. right, yeah, I - I’m so sorry, I’ll just…,” Yang stammered, barely aiming as she made her throw through flustered embarrassment.

 _Clank_. 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“Babe, you did it! You won!” Blake cheered, throwing her arms around Yang’s shoulders and pulling her in for a congratulatory kiss. 

Which took Yang absolutely no time at all to get lost in. “Yeah,” she breathed as she tangled her fingers messily in Blake’s hair. “Told you,” she said, brushing her tongue against Blake’s parted lips.

“Fuck it! I quit!” the carnie’s loud voice forced them apart like lightning. “Just take anything - whatever the fuck you want, alright? I’m out of here.”

Still wrapped up in each other's arms, they stared in silence as the disgruntled man hopped the counter and walked away without another word. “Uh….,” Yang gaped in complete shock while Blake was slowly overcome with the most adorable giggling fit.

“Well,” she broke through a barely contained breath as she tried to reign in her mirth. “I suppose we should go ahead and take something, don’t you think?”

Yang shook her head to clear herself of her stupor, then pressed a kiss to Blake’s forehead as she brushed an errant tear of laughter away from the corner of Blake’s eye. “And what exactly doth the fair lady desire?” she asked, gesturing to the prizes hanging from the roof.

  
  


A few hours later, stomachs stuffed with more cotton candy, mini donuts and funnel cakes than could possibly be considered healthy, they were walking home as the light from the golden hour started to spill over the cracks in the sidewalks, casting long summer shadows behind themselves. “Babe, you aren’t holding my hand,” Yang complained, turning her puppy dog eyes on her.

“I’m sure that the reason that I’m not holding your hand _isn’t_ because my arms are completely otherwise occupied with this giant stuffed bumblebee that I’m holding,” Blake replied dryly, hefting the massive plush in her arms for emphasis.

“He _said_ we could take anything,” Yang shrugged, wordlessly holding out her arms to relieve Blake of the bee for the rest of the walk.

“Oh thank god,” she sighed as she rubbed at the accumulated sweat that had gathered in the creases of her elbows as a result of the combination of the soft black and yellow fur and the heat from the slowly fading sunset. “I can’t wait to put this thing up on a shelf in my closet and _never_ look at it ever again. It’s kinda hideous. And _itchy_.”

“Aw, babe, c’mon! I think he’s adorable,” Yang said, smushing her face next to the little black round eyes and kissing its little smile. Blake rolled her eyes at her as Yang continued with an apologetic furrow to her forehead, “But… I would offer to take it off your hands for now! I think I’d have to buy an extra seat on the plane just to be able to transport it home though.”

“Oh,” Blake said quietly, suddenly forced to remember that these moments weren’t going to last forever. “Yeah, I.. suppose that makes sense.”

“Hey,” Yang stopped, a few feet from the corner that led to Blake’s street. She shifted the plushie into a one-armed grip - slightly easier with her longer arms - and pulled Blake in close with a hug. “Let’s not get sad about that right now, okay? I’m still here for the rest of the week - nine more days! Right? And I planned out a few more things for us to do while I’m here, all by myself mind you! Totally planned everything out, ‘cause I’m thoughtful like that-”

Blake knew Yang was purposefully blustering just to bring her out of her melancholy - and she absolutely loved her for it. So she let a giggle rise into the open air easily and pressed a kiss to Yang’s collarbone where she had rested her head while in the embrace. “You had Ilia help you with most of it, didn’t you?” she teased.

Yang threaded her fingers through Blake’s hair just to keep her close and didn’t even try to fight against the statement. “I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for you, Blake,” she murmured, kissing the crown of her head. Warm air bloomed from her lips as she kept them close while she continued, “I had Ilia tell me of the places you haven’t been to in ages, things you’ve always wanted to do but never got the chance - stuff I _couldn’t_ ask you without raising at least a little suspicion. I wanted everything to be _perfect_.”

“Yang…,” Blake breathed, glancing up at her from underneath her lashes as she wound her arms around her shoulders. “You’re _here_. Of course everything’s already perfect. You don’t have to do anything else but be with me to be perfect, baby.”

Yang hummed quietly, pressing another kiss against her hair. “Yeah. Ditto,” she dropped her arm from around Blake’s shoulders, easily catching her hand on the way down. “But I still have just a couple of surprises up my sleeve for this week anyway.”

“I can’t wait,” she said, nuzzling her nose against Yang’s cheek as she squeezed her hand tightly. “C’mon, let’s go home.”

Yang couldn’t help but stare after Blake for a long moment as she stepped ahead, tugging Yang along gently behind her. Haloed in the light of the golden hour, she was so beautiful and so serene - and she looked more like home than any building Yang had ever been in. “Right behind you.”

  
  
  


Yang’s first little surprise almost lost every ounce of respect that Blake’s parents had for her. Almost. She was sneaking down the stairs just a few minutes after midnight, on her way to meet Ilia in the backyard as discussed in a previous text conversation, when the living room lamp switched on behind her. Yang froze for a long extended beat before turning slowly around to the source of the light. And found Kali sitting in an armchair beneath the soft glow of a reading lamp. "Hello dear," Kali said, her muted tone still somehow resoundingly loud in the still moon-waking hours. 

"Uh, hi um.. Mrs. Belladonna, wow - sure didn't, um, y'know… expect you or anyone to be awake!" Yang stammered, her hands scrabbling behind herself for purchase on _something, anything_ \- as if that would help her explain her reasons for creeping around a house that she’d only spent one night in.

“The china cabinet isn’t locked, by the way,” Kali said, her eyes glittering teasingly in the dark. “Though,” she lifted a finger to her chin in consideration, “I’m not sure how you would manage to pack fine dishware into your suitcase without having it shatter in transit. Thus devaluing them entirely, and making your attempt at robbery… dismal at best.”

“Oh, I….,” Yang gaped, red-faced and ready to collapse from embarrassment. “Gods, uh… Mrs. Belladonna - Kali, um… I… actually, you see I just, your daughter and I - we kinda ruined some sheets? So, she asked me… to um. Go get new ones! Yeah!”

Kali stood up and folded her arms, her silhouette now outlined and backlit and making her look all that more threatening. Which Yang was _sure_ was her plan all along. “And _why_ couldn’t she just go get them herself?”

“She’s too tired to move,” Yang blurted, then immediately smacked her hand over her mouth. She was _really_ going to keep going with this _“I fucked your daughter so hard she can’t get up_ ” schtick right to her mother’s _face_? Just to hide the fact that she was a huge fucking sap of a romantic and wanted to kiss her girlfriend through her bedroom window?

“Oh, I’m just messing with you, Yang!” Kali laughed abruptly, pulling Yang in for a hug - which somehow set Yang even more on edge in her bewilderment. 

“Um….”

“Ilia texted me a little while ago to let me know that she’d be coming in through the back gate to help you pull off this cute little romantic surprise,” Kali stepped back, squeezing Yang’s shoulder reassuringly. “Once again proving that she has just _a little_ more foresight than you do, dear. Seeing as how you would be sneaking around our backyard in the dead of night, hm?”

Yang winced, sure that her embarrassment was burning holes in the floor. She really wished she could disappear into the Earth’s core right about now. “I don’t suppose… that you could keep this whole thing between us? Ilia will never let me hear the end of it, for one.”

“What thing?” Kali asked innocently, whisking past her as she headed to the kitchen. Over her shoulder, she winked, “I was simply on my way to get a glass of water.”

Yang knew a cue when she heard one. “Thank you,” she mouthed, then darted out the back door to meet Ilia in the yard.

“I’ve been waiting six minutes for you, what’s the deal?” Ilia grumbled, her phone in one hand which was lit up with a series of sent texts - all of which Yang hadn’t received. 

“Six minutes,” Yang rolled her eyes, glancing at her phone to find that she had nine unopened messages from her. “You act like you were dying or something.”

“Just throw the stupid rock,” Ilia drummed her fingers against her bicep clad in a leather jacket. Summer nights weren’t quite forgiving enough to lounge about in thin cotton pajamas - though Yang was the exception in that case and she revelled in the crisp night air dancing across her nearly bare shoulders.

“You could just go home,” Yang muttered, not too loudly. She didn’t want Ilia to abandon her and leave her stranded during her first big romantic gesture of the trip.

“Go home?” Ilia scoffed, stooping down low to select a pebble from Kali’s rock garden. “You think I want to miss this? There’s a chance for spectacular and _hilarious_ failure. That’s something I want to see first hand, thank you very much.”

“Right…,” Yang rolled her eyes, holding her hand out for the stone. “Of course.”

Ilia paused, pulling the rock away from Yang’s outstretched fingers as an unidentifiable _look_ crossed her expression. “In all seriousness, Yang,” she started, and oh _god_ , that unnerved Yang more than anything else that Ilia had ever done or said to her. “I’m here for Blake,” she said, her words dropping into a low mutter - almost as if _she_ was embarrassed. Though by what, Yang wasn’t entirely sure. 

“Alright?” Yang put in, because she sensed that Ilia needed further prompting, and that any other sort of response would just cause her to draw back into her shell again. 

“I used to love her, you know,” she said, her blush obvious and bright even as the clouds drifted past the moon. “Awhile ago. I… still do, I know that. I mean, how could you not?” She glanced up at Yang, and there was a shine in her eyes that spoke to a myriad of emotions. Yang saw nothing but love shining through them all. “She’s beautiful, and kind. And gentle and so warm and caring… and loving.”

“Yeah. She is,” Yang murmured in soft agreement. A beat, “And you’re still in love with her.”

“Not like that, not anymore,” Ilia shook her head slowly. She reached out for Yang’s hand, presenting the pebble to her, palm up. “Not like you.”

Yang took it, reverent - like the stone suddenly had so much more weight to it now that there was a shared story behind it. “So why come help me?”

“I told you, I’m here for Blake,” she explained, and even though her words hadn’t shifted, Yang’s understanding of her meaning had. “I’ve never seen her happier than she’s been during these past six months. She lights up when anyone even _mentions_ your name. It’s kinda disgusting.”

“Hey,” Yang grumbled, nudging into Ilia’s side in protest. 

Ilia took it, then pushed her shoulder into Yang’s midriff and sent her back a step. “I _love_ how happy she is with you, dork,” Ilia said, reaching out and catching Yang’s arm to steady her. “So when you texted me all excited and babbling about this sappy plan, of course I was going to come help. Because Blake reads all those books with all those grand romantic gestures - and I knew that this would make her the happiest girl in the world. And I love Blake. And seeing her happy means the world to me. And you’re the girl who makes her happy. So, I guess in a way… that means that I love you too.”

“Ilia…,” Yang stared and stared and then, when she couldn’t hold back anymore - she flung her arms around Ilia and squeezed. “You really are just a big ol’ softie inside, aren’t you?” Yang squealed, barely remembering to keep her voice down.

"Don't fucking go letting on," Ilia grumbled, returning the hug briefly, her arms wound strong and sure around Yang’s back. Then she nudged her backwards, towards the window. And pointed. "Now will you _please_ throw the rock?"

Yang's heart restarted a little, as if she'd forgotten the reason she was really out here in the first place. "Right. Yep!" she lifted her arm and carefully flicked her wrist, mindful of the force she used. A shattered window and glass all over the floor of Blake's bedroom was _not_ romantic in the slightest. Nevermind the fact that Mr. Belladonna would probably chase Yang all the way back to the airport with his shotgun. 

"Blake!" she whisper-shouted as the rock fell back down to the grass. There was no movement at the window. "Uh… do you think I'll need another pebble?"

Ilia frowned in consideration. “I mean… she’s usually such a light sleeper, so unless she was really tired-”

“Oh, well yeah I guess I did tire her out pretty good at the carnival earlier-”

“Nope! Stop right there, thank you,” Ilia held up a hand, “I don’t need any other details.”

“Wh- I wasn’t-” Yang shook her head, repelling the insinuation - though she wasn’t entirely sure why. “I just meant that we spent basically all day outside and it was really hot and-”

“Yeah I’m sure it was,” Ilia muttered, bending down to grab Yang another pebble.

“Ilia, it’s not what you-!” Yang’s protests were cut off by the sound of a window creaking open and a groggy voice.

“What in the actual fuck is going on out here?” Blake grumbled, stopping Yang short. 

“She gets sweary when she’s tired. And grumpy. Both of which she _currently_ is,” Ilia slipped out of the corner of her mouth. “Better fix that, Romeo.”

“Uh....,” Yang started, blinking up at Blake who had her head stuck out the window. “Surprise?”

“The surprise is that you aren’t in my bed right now,” Blake said flatly, but the night air playing across her skin and ruffling her hair seemed to be waking her up a little.

“I _will_ leave,” Ilia said pointedly.

Blake glanced over at her best friend and lifted an eyebrow. “Alright babe,” she said, leaning a little further out, her arms crossed over the windowsill. “What wild scheme of yours could’ve been worthy enough for Ilia to agree to be dragged out in the middle of the night?”

“I… uh. Well,” Yang scratched at her scalp, feeling embarrassed at the way the events of the night had thus far turned out. “I wanted to kiss you through your window? But I’m realizing now - um, looking at Ilia I… may have severely misjudged her potential ability to-”

“Oh, you should _not_ have said that babe.”

“My ability to _what,_ Xiao Long?” Ilia folded her arms, lifting her eyebrows dangerously in Yang’s direction. Then she smirked, tilting her head in consideration. “Lift you?” she snickered. “ _Please_ . I could suplex you in my sleep if I _really_ wanted to.”

“I somehow highly doubt-”

Ilia dropped her jacket to the ground just then, leaving her standing there in a crop top muscle tank - complete with rainbow stripes across it, of course - and revealing an upper body that rippled with clearly defined power. “Go on,” Ilia challenged. 

“Holy _fuck_ I’m gay,” Yang blurted.

“Yang-!”

Yang whirled on her heel sharply to look up at Blake for a brief moment. “Baby, I’m sorry, you’re the love of my life and I cherish you and adore everything about you but _what the fuck,_ how did I not know that Ilia was hiding _that_?!”

“I was going to say,” Blake continued, bemused. “That that was _my_ reaction the first time Ilia sent me a gym selfie. She’s the inspiration behind my desire to work out actually!”

“And I’m beyond grateful,” Yang replied, distracted, before turning back to Ilia. “So like… you gonna lift me up so I can feel those muscles in action?”

“Dial it back there, babe,” Blake warned, her tone still light enough to carry love across.

Yang burned with embarrassment as she winced. “Right, yeah. I’m sorry, I just… I guess I got carried away.”

“It’s alright, I get it,” Blake laughed softly. “Just get up here so I can kiss that apology right off your lips.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” Yang grinned, glancing at Ilia again, who had gone back to wearing her jacket. “May I?”

“Duh, that’s why I’m _here_ ,” Ilia rolled her eyes, squatting down in front of Yang in pretty much a perfect 90 degree bend. “Up you get.”

Yang clambered onto Ilia’s shoulders with just slightly a little bit of a lot of effort, then grabbed onto Ilia’s offered hands for balance. “Alright, here I come babe,” Yang proclaimed dramatically as Ilia stood smoothly to her full height and took a couple steps closer to the side of the house so Yang could be close enough to lean in without causing the whole operation to topple.

Blake giggled as Yang leaned an elbow on the windowsill next to her. “Hey Yang,” she grinned, tucking a strand of Yang’s hair back behind her ear.

“Come here often?” she asked, her lips lifting upwards in a crooked grin - the one that Blake loved so much because of the way it showed off her dimples and her light dusting of freckles. 

“Seeing as this _is_ my room in _my_ house….,” Blake considered, leaning her forehead against Yang and entirely taking her in. “No, not really.”

“You’re _bad_ , Belladonna,” Yang husked, her lips brushing against Blake’s, breath clouding the threshold of tension, warming the night air that slowly seeped its way into the interior of Blake’s room. 

“How bad do you _want_ me to be?” she whispered back, nipping at Yang’s lower lip before drawing away. 

“Honestly… however bad _you_ want to be,” Yang gave back, almost thoughtlessly as she drowned in Blake’s gaze. 

“Yang, I’m gonna fucking drop you,” Ilia threatened, and Yang nearly fell regardless - shocked back into the reality that the world contained _other_ people. 

Blake lit up the night sky with her profuse blush as Yang tried her damndest to save face despite the very unfortunate fact that she was still seated on Ilia’s shoulders. “You did agree-”

“Oh my fucking god,” Ilia cut in, way past the point of exasperation. “Just _kiss_ her already, damnit! Kiss her so that I can go home and sleep and not ever have to think about what you two are gonna do after this whole thing, alright? Please?”

Blake blinked down at Ilia, who looked more disgruntled at the fact that she was basically stuck between her sappy best friend and her girlfriend than the fact that she had said six foot three girlfriend balanced on her shoulders. “Well,” she said, drawing it out just a little longer, which pulled a sneer out of Ilia. “What do you think, baby?”

“I think…,” Yang played along, then immediately forged onwards nervously as Ilia purposefully swayed to one side, nearly sending Yang toppling over. “We should probably give the gay what she wants, huh Blake? Preferably before I get a concussion. Or die.”

Blake shot Ilia a no-nonsense glare before reaching out and pulling Yang in close by her elbow and tapping on her lips enticingly. She nuzzled her nose against Yang’s, saying, “I hope you mean _this_ gay.”

“You know I do,” Yang whispered, pressing forward and meeting Blake’s lips for a long moment under the natural silver of the clear night sky. Their embrace held, paused, _breathed_. There wasn’t any fanfare and it wasn’t movie magic - but that somehow made it more beautiful. There was a rawness to the air around them, a grittiness that manifested in the way the wooden ledge of the windowsill dug into Yang’s palms, the subtle uncertain sway to her balance. 

“I love you,” Blake murmured as they just barely parted. “So much.”

“Gods. I love you so much too,” Yang breathed. “It’s kinda insane.”

“How touching,” Ilia drawled from beneath them once more. Blake knew her best friend well enough to hear the undertone that laced through her words as being one of absolute elation - but she kept quiet and let Ilia have her moment. This _was_ a huge favor that Yang had managed to pull, after all. “Now, would you mind climbing through her window and reuniting with her _at long last_ \- or however those books of yours always phrase it?”

“Not a problem,” Yang nodded as she gestured for Ilia to step back before carefully securing her grip on the windowsill. “I can’t let you do all the show and tell at the gun show, after all. Go ahead and step back there, Ilia.”

Ilia ducked swiftly out from under Yang - so quickly that Yang partially had to wonder if she was hoping to catch her off-guard and send her sprawling on her ass to the yard below. But Yang was expecting at least _some_ sort of trickery, and held her position at Blake’s window in a perfect lock-off. “Alright well, see ya two lovebirds later,” Ilia said, readjusting her jacket and brushing off the shoulders. “Text me later Blake - if you’re not too tired, that is.”

As she left through the gate, Blake looked down at Yang as she got her feet planted underneath, digging her toes into the spaces between bricks easily. In the brief moment that Yang hung suspended, Blake had a minor heart attack - before remembering that Yang was a rock climber. So instead of panicking (or drooling a rather _obscene_ amount over her muscles), Blake picked up on Ilia’s comment. “What’d she mean by being _too tired_ exactly?”

“Just a sec,” Yang grunted, glancing up at her next hand placements after locking her feet in. “Step back please, babe.” Once Blake was clear, Yang pushed up with her thighs in a singular explosive motion and smoothly changed her grip to the sides of the windows - then easily pulled herself over the threshold. “Hey.”

Blake’s jaw gaped open for a long moment. “Wow, that was….”

“Aw, babe,” Yang took her into her arms and nuzzled her close, absorbing _her_ warmth for once due to the fact that she had cooled off ever so slightly in the night air - and that Blake was still warm from her covers. “Were you worried about me? Hanging from your windowsill like a damsel in distress-”

“I would’ve saved you,” Blake hummed, pressing a kiss to her cheek before shaking her head. “But only because I forgot for a split second that you have a rock climbing gym like three minutes away from your house that you practically live in.”

“And you’ve never really seen me in action before,” Yang supplied, filling in the gaps. “And… judging by how impressed you are right now, I think I’ll have to change that when I go home, hm?”

“Don’t talk about that right now,” Blake protested, burying her face in deeper against Yang’s chest, drowning in her heartbeat. “But yes,” she continued, muffled, “please get Pyrrha to film you every now and then.”

Yang laughed, gently swaying side to side and rocking Blake back and forth within her arms. “I’ll be sure to mention it to her next time, baby.”

There was a settled pause for an extended moment - broken after awhile by a small sniffle from Blake. At Yang’s prompting, a small kiss to her temple, Blake exhaled, “I can’t handle the thought of you leaving, Yang. I just… I _can’t_.”

Instead of her usual reassurances that they still had a whole week, a whole number of several paltry days left to be together, Yang just clung to her tighter, pressing her body impossibly close and stupidly hoping to imprint Blake permanently onto her skin. It wasn’t enough. Words rose, urgent, and, as much as she hated to, Yang pulled back to look into Blake’s eyes. Sincere. “I’m not leaving you, Blake. Not ever. Okay?” Yang took Blake’s face in her hands and kissed her once, twice. Forehead, nose. Thrice, a passionate seal of commitment against her lips. “In a little while, we’re gonna have to be apart again, but that’s not our future. That’s _not_ our forever. I promise.”

“You’re right. You’re _right_ ,” Blake whispered, buried in the best way. “Because my forever is _you_.”


End file.
